mcchesney



Feb. 28, 1956 T. c. MccHEsNl-:Y

REMOVABLE DRILLING BARGE CRADLE Filed Jan. 30, 1950 INVENTOR. TC. MCCHESNEY A gli?? mom/E United States Patent REMOVABLE DRILLING BARGE CRADLE i Thomas C. McChesney, Odessa, Tex.

Application January 30, 1950, Serial No. 141,250

4 Claims. (Cl. 61-46) This invention relates to offshore oil. well drilling. In one aspect, it relates to offshore drilling wherein the drilling rig and other drilling apparatus are mounted on a barge. In another aspect it relates to a removable cradle supported byv piling and upon which rests a drilling barge for offshore drilling operation.

Oil is found under bodies of water suchV as, bays, lakes, rivers, or oceans. It is old to exploit these fields by drilling the wells from barges upon which are mounted the usual drilling equipment such as drawworks, derricks, pumps, etc.v The usual procedure is to float the drilling barge to location and then open the sea valves to the ballast tanks and sink the barge hull to the bottom. These barges are formed with an open slot so that upon completion of the well the barge may be reiloated and moved to another location. Unfortunately, more and more. of the oildevelopment is being forced into deeper and deeper water so that a shallow water drilling barge cannot be used, consequently, drilling bargesof greater draft and height must be used to drill in the deeper water. This forces the drilling operator to maintain diierent drillingk barges because obviously a shallow water barge cannot be used in deep water because the working deck is below water and a deep water barge cannot be usedl inl shallow water because the depth of water is insuilicient tov float the barge to location.

It. is. also known to use. one or more barges as a subplatform so that a' shallow water drilling barge may be used. Piles are driven to prevent the upper bargesfrom sliding off the lower barge. However, such a-procedure. is costly, not only from the standpoint of using several expensive. barges, but it alsoI involvesV an1 operation of: leveling olf. the floor of the body of water sovthat the barge will lie. horizontal. It istherefore a purpose of my invention to reduce, the unnecessary cost. of maintaining unnecessary duplicate equipment and to-provide meansfwhereby a shallow water drilling barge may bei used in` various depths of water.

I propose by my invention to construct a removable cradle to slip over and rest upon piling to support asha1- low water drilling barge and auxiliary equipment for deep water drilling.

A. purpose. and object of myY inventionis to make'possible the utilization of standardy shallowy water drilling barges in deep and open water drilling.

Another object of my inventionl isto providev a remov'- able cradle whichv is suitablefor supporting a shallow water drilling bargeiny deep watery drilling operations; and. upon completionV of the drilling the cradle may be: removed from its piling support and transportedy to: another loca'- tion for subsequent use.

Still other objects and. advantages of my invention will bve-apparent upon reading the following. description which taken in conjunction. with the attached drawing formsa part of' my disclosure.

In tlie drawing, Figure 1 is a side elevation in diagrammatical form ofa drilling barge in. place upon a removable rice 2 cradle assembly which, in turn, isr resting upon: piling; Figure 2 is an end View of my cradle assembly resting upon piling. Figure 3- is an endview-in enlarged form, that shows how my cradle rests upon 2 pile.

Referring now to the: drawing, piling 11 may bedriven into place by any desired method. The tops of all the: piling are driven or cut to the same elevation. The cradle member as illustrated in Figure 3 is attached to piling 11 by means of sleeve19=whichis capped. by plate 18. Member 16 which is attached directly to plate 18v overhangslhe pile 11, as may be seenin Figure, 2. Thisoverhangiszreinforced by knee brace 20. Member 16 is further reinforced by horizontal member 26'verticalmembers21z and diagonal members 22, as illustrated' in Figure 2`. At the ends of the cross member 16 are placedv upright members 17, the top ends of which are intended tov be approximatelyl at the mean water level 13. The top ends of these memv bers 17 may carry adjustmenty means 27 for. maintaining the barge in a centered position, in the cradle during allV operations.

As seen in Figure l, a completedrk assembly may have double or primary cradles. 14 and single or secondary cradles 15. A double cradle is made by tyingl two. single cradles together with horizontal members 25 and 28 and diagonal members 23 and 24. These members fasten directly to sleeves l. As shown in Figure l, the bottom of the barge rests directly upon thecross members 16.

Also inl Figurel andat the center top of the barge 31': is shown diagrammatically upright members. 32 of a derrick. Reference numeral 33 is the casingthead, while reference numeral 34 identifies the casing which extends from the casing head' at least suiiiciently far into the earth 12 as to exclude sand, silt, and surfacev water from the well'.

It ispreferable to construct the. several' cradle members on land and transport them by freighter or an equipment carrying barge to thef drilling site. After the piling 1.1 have been drivenl to proper depth, the: cradles are placedin position with sleeves 19 encircling'the ends ofthe piling; When these cradles are so positioned, the four cross members 1-6 define substantially a horizontalplane. The drilling barge may then be floated to a position directly over these cradles and the sea cocks opened for admission of water into the ballast` tanks. TheY admission of water tok these tanks, ofl course, causes' the barge to sink and' rest upon the crossy members 16 of the cradles. If the' ballast tanks` are completely filled with water, the weight of the water together with the weight of the barge and its appurtenances causes the barge to rest firmly upon its-bargev supporting apparatus in such amanner thatwave action and tide action will noti move the barge. During the barge. sinking operation, the adjustment members 27 may be adjusted so as tocenter the barge as desired. After the barge has come to rest' ony the support member 16, the adjusting member 27 may beV further adjusted so as to prevent. side movements. of the barge' with respect tov the supporting apparatus.

When the drilling barge hasbeen so positioned upon its supporting apparatus', drilling operations may be begun.

Upon completion of a well, the drilling barge may be' removed from its` support by rst loosening the adjusting apparatus 27 and then pumping air into the flooded ballasttanks; This air upon entering; the ballast tanks forces the water out and ultimately the barge will float. Afterk the. bargeA has beenv removedv from' the vicinity of theV well, the cradles are removed from the piles by crane barges and transported toanother location.y Incase the-well is a dry hole, the several pilingV are all. that need besacriced.. However if the. Well is. a. producer,. the several piling members may serve as supports for, aproductionplatform.Y This latter apparatusr is well-knownin. the art and*- consists mainly of a horizontal steel platform carrying the pumping equipment and one or more separator and storage tanks with connection pipes and other apparatus as needed for the production of oil.

Materials of construction of the piling and of my cradle apparatus may be selected from among those commercially available and adaptable for the problem at hand. Dueconsideration should be given to materials of construction since salt water and salt water spray are very corrosive.

It will be obvious to those skilled in the art that the particular construction of the cradles described above may be varied according to structural demands as may be dictated by the type and weight of barge and drilling apparatus to be supported, and by the type of piling to be used. In case the barge to be supported is extremely heavy, additional structural elements similar to elements 16, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, and 2S may be used. For

example, some members may be positioned from one pilc ing member across and diagonallyto another piling member. In another embodiment, the auxiliary cradles l5 may be tied or temporarily attached to the main cradle member 14 so as to make the auxiliary cradles rigidly positioned with respect to the main cradle. embodiment, two cradles of the type of main cradle 14 may be used, in which case one main cradle may be positioned relatively close to one end of the barge, while the other double cradle may be positioned at a point near the other end.

The above-described cradle structures are given for illustrative purposes and should not be regarded as limiting the invention, the scope of which is set forth in the following claims.

Having described my invention, l claim:

l. A support for an oil well drilling barge comprising a plurality of vertically disposed piling the bottom ends of which are driven into the earth beneath the body of water and their top ends terminating in a common horizontal plane below the surface of said body of water at its highest normal level, a pile of said plurality of piling disposed at each of the corners of a rectangle, and a removable non-floatable cradle member resting on said piling, said cradle member comprising, in combination, a separate plate member resting on each pile of said plurality of piling, a horizontally disposed member rigidly attached to and extending from each of said plate members to each adjacent plate member and defining the sides of said rectangle, a separate hollow cylindrical and vertically disposed guide member rigidly attached at one end to the underside of each plate member and extending downward therefrom and around the top ends of said piling to prel vent horizontal movement of said cradle with respect to said piling, and a vertically disposed member rigidly attached to and extending vertically upward from each end of one parallel pair of said horizontally disposed members to prevent side slippage of said barge.

2. A support for an oil Well drilling barge comprising a plurality of vertically disposed piling the bottom ends of which are firmly embedded in the earth beneath the body of water and their top ends terminating in a common horizontal plane below the surface of said body of water at its highest normal level, a pile of said plurality of piling disposed at each of the corners of a rectangle, and a removable cradle apparatus comprising a removable non-tioatable primary cradle member resting upon said piling, said primary cradle member comprising, in combination, a separate plate member resting on each pile of said plurality of piling, a horizontally disposed iirst member rigidly attached to and extending from each of said plate members to each adjacent plate member and defining the sides of said rectangle, one pair of mutually parallel rst members extending horizontally beyond said plate members at the corners of said rectangle, a separate hollow cylindrical and vertically disposed guide member Cit In still another rigidly attached at one end to the underside of each plate member and extending downward therefrom around the top ends of said piling to prevent horizontal movement of said cradle with respect to said piling, brace members extending from each cylindrical guide member at each corner of said rectangle to each adjacent elongated guide member to maintain said elongated guide members rigidly fixed and mutually parallel, a vertically disposed second member rigidly attached to and extending vertically upward from each of the outer ends of said one pair of mutually parallel first members in such a manner as to prevent side movement of said drilling barge.

3. In the support for an oil well drilling barge of claim 2, said plurality of vertically disposed piling comprises at least four additional piling firmly embedded in the earth beneath said body of water and their top ends terminating in said common horizontal plane, two piles of said additional piling being disposed on one side of said rectangle and two on the opposite side thereof, and said plurality of piling being disposed in two parallel rows of four piling each with a pile of said additional piling forming the ends of said two rows of piling, and said removable cradle apparatus including a secondary removable nonlioatable cradle member on either side of said primary cradle member and each of said secondary removable cradle members comprising a separate plate member resting on each pile of said pair of said additional piling on one side of said primary cradle, a horizontally disposed third member being rigidly attached to and extending from one of the latter mentioned plate members to the other, this latter horizontally disposed third member extending beyond the plate members to which it is attached, and said latter horizontally disposed third member and extensions thereof being parallel to the corresponding members of said rectangle, a separate hollow cylindrical and vertically disposed guide member rigidly attached at one end to the underside of each plate member resting on each pile of said pair of additional piling and extending downward therefrom and around the top ends of said pair of piling to prevent horizontal movement of said secondary cradle with respect to said pair of piling, brace members extending from one elongated guide member of said secondary cradle to the adjacent guide member in the other row of piling to maintain the latter guide members rigidly fixed and mutually parallel, and a vertically disposed second member rigidly attached to and extending vertically upward from each of the extended ends of said third member of said secondary cradle, the four vertically disposed secondary members adjacent each of said rows of piling defining a straight line and the straight lines being parallel, said secondary cradles being disposed at such distances from said primary cradle member that said secondary cradles are adapted to support the ends of an oil well drilling barge and said primary cradle member is positioned intermediate said secondary cradles to support the central portion of said drilling barge.

4. In the support for an oil well drilling barge of claim 2, said plurality of vertically disposed piling comprises at least two additional piling firmly embedded in the earth beneath said body of water and their top ends terminating in said common horizontal plane, said additional piling being disposed on one side of said rectangle, and said plurality of piling disposed in two parallel rows of three piling each with a pile of said additional piling forming an end of each of said two rows of piling, and said removable cradle apparatus including a secondary removable and non-floatable cradle member on said one side of said primary cradle member and comprising a separate plate member resting on each pile of said pair of additional piling on said side of said primary cradle, a horizontally disposed third member being rigidly attached to and extending from one of the latter mentioned plate members to the other, this latter horizontally disposed member extending beyond both plate members to which it is at- 5 taehed, and said latter horizontally disposed member and extensions thereof being parallel to the corresponding members of said rectangle, a separate hollow cylindrical and vertically disposed guide member rigidly attached at one end to the underside of eachplate member resting on each pile of said pair of additional piling and extending downward therefrom and around the top ends of said pair of piling to prevent horizontal movement of said cylindrical cradle with respect to said pair of piling, brace members extending from one elongated guide member of said secondary cradle to the adjacent guide member in the other row of piling to maintain said guide members rigidly lixed and mutually parallel, and a vertically disposed second member rigidly attached to and extending vertically upward from each of the extended ends of said third member of said secondary cradle, the three vertically disposed second members adjacent each of said rows of piling defining a straight line and the straight lines being parallel, said secondary cradle member being disposed at such a distance from the primary cradle member that said secondary cradle member vis adapted to support one end of an oil well drilling barge and the primary cradle member is adapted to support the other end thereof.v

References Cited in the le of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,204,946 Collom Nov. 14, 1916 1,235,089 Wiking July 31, 1917 1,358,951 Helmich Nov. 16, 1920 2,151,394 Rogers Mar. 21, 1939 2,217,879 Willey Oct. 15, 1940 2,237,387 Crites et al Apr. 8, 1941 2,318,685 Gross May 11, 1943 2,334,992 Crake Nov. 23, 1943 2,652,693 Goldman et al Sept. 22, 1953 FOREIGN PATENTS 3,785 Great Britain 1892 

